Fearless Creative Leadership

A five minute edited highlight of our conversation.

Welcome to the twentieth episode of Fearless. After four months, nineteen interviews and roughly two hundred thousand spoken words, I thought this was a good time to take stock. And so this episode is called… "The Story so Far." What makes a Fearless Creative Leader in today's moving at the speed of thought world? Based on conversations with companies as diverse as: Hearst Anomaly, Calvin Klein, Google, Refinery29, Panera Bread and W+K, one - perhaps surprising - theme stands out already. Hear from some of the world's most creative leaders including: Joanna Coles; Emma Cookson; Steve Shiffman; Carl Johnson; Jim Stengel; Lisa Gersh; Lars Bastholm; Eric Baldwin & Jason Bagley, Carter Murray and Justin Stefano.

'The Lawyer'. Lisa Gersh is a lawyer by training and a leader by instinct. After a career practicing law, she became the co-founder of the Oxygen network, before becoming the CEO of Martha Stewart omni-media and then the CEO of Gwyneth Paltrow's company, Goop. Today, she is the CEO of Alexander Wang. Along the way, she has proven over and over again, her willingness to listen, to learn and to lead. I talked to Lisa about the childhood event that changed her focus, about learning how to nod and about the biggest mistake she ever made.

A five minute edited highlight of our full conversation.

'The World Changers'. "We're trying to figure out how do we get vaccines delivered to places that have no physical addresses." Torrence Boone and Lars Bastholm work at Google. Their jobs are multi-faceted but fundamentally they share a responsibility for helping others to unlock the business and societal potential of Google's capacity for original thinking. Being a leader at Google demands reaching for the stars while figuring out how to pay the bills. It requires you consider the impossible and the commercial in the same breath. It encourages those who want to change the world. I talked to Torrence and Lars about their evolutions from Baltimore dancer and Danish film-maker to creative leaders and collaborators at one of the world's most technologically advanced companies, about what they have learned about building teams and about their own experiences of being outsiders. For more information: www.fearlesscreativeleadership.com

A five minute edited highlight of our full length conversation.

"The Simplifier." Emma Cookson has been able to filter the noise for brands and businesses throughout her career. She is regarded as one of the world's foremost brand strategists, taking over the role of Global Head of Strategic Planning at BBH before becoming CEO and then Chairman of BBH, New York. Today she is a partner at You and Mr Jones, the disruptive company designed to build brands by combining marketing and technology expertise. I talked to Emma about how she turned an Oxford university english literature degree into a career in advertising, about her unique definition of a brand and about her personal desire for global domination. For more information: www.FearlessCreativeLeadership.com www.youandmrjones.com

A five minute highlight of our full conversation.

"The Story Teller." Joanna Coles has been finding and telling stories since she was a young girl. She has been a writer, a publisher, a salesperson, a journalist, a reporter, an editor, an author and on-camera talent in a reality-tv show. She's an original thinker, a ground breaker, a glass ceiling raiser, a mentor, and a reference point. She's also the inspiration for a new tv show based largely on her life. She has worked for some of the world's most iconic publications. The Spectator, The Guardian, The Times of London, and she has been the editor of Marie Claire and of Cosmo. And a year ago she was named Chief Content officer for Hearst Magazines. I talked to Joanna about her early lessons as a very young writer, about how a double murder changed the course of her career, and about her correspondence with the Queen. For more information: www.FearlessCreativeLeadership.com

A five-minute highlight of our full conversation